Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Scientist Stephen Hawking wants to find a way to convince people to stop voting for Trump, and to start listening to people like him again, to save the planet from climate change and national borders.
This is the most dangerous time for our planet
Stephen Hawking
We can’t go on ignoring inequality, because we have the means to destroy our world but not to escape it.
As a theoretical physicist based in Cambridge, I have lived my life in an extraordinarily privileged bubble. Cambridge is an unusual town, centred around one of the world’s great universities. Within that town, the scientific community that I became part of in my 20s is even more rarefied.
And within that scientific community, the small group of international theoretical physicists with whom I have spent my working life might sometimes be tempted to regard themselves as the pinnacle. In addition to this, with the celebrity that has come with my books, and the isolation imposed by my illness, I feel as though my ivory tower is getting taller.
So the recent apparent rejection of the elites in both America and Britain is surely aimed at me, as much as anyone. Whatever we might think about the decision by the British electorate to reject membership of the European Union and by the American public to embrace Donald Trump as their next president, there is no doubt in the minds of commentators that this was a cry of anger by people who felt they had been abandoned by their leaders.
…
What matters now, far more than the choices made by these two electorates, is how the elites react. Should we, in turn, reject these votes as outpourings of crude populism that fail to take account of the facts, and attempt to circumvent or circumscribe the choices that they represent? I would argue that this would be a terrible mistake.
The concerns underlying these votes about the economic consequences of globalisation and accelerating technological change are absolutely understandable. The automation of factories has already decimated jobs in traditional manufacturing, and the rise of artificial intelligence is likely to extend this job destruction deep into the middle classes, with only the most caring, creative or supervisory roles remaining.
…
The consequences of this are plain to see: the rural poor flock to cities, to shanty towns, driven by hope. And then often, finding that the Instagram nirvana is not available there, they seek it overseas, joining the ever greater numbers of economic migrants in search of a better life. These migrants in turn place new demands on the infrastructures and economies of the countries in which they arrive, undermining tolerance and further fuelling political populism.
For me, the really concerning aspect of this is that now, more than at any time in our history, our species needs to work together. We face awesome environmental challenges: climate change, food production, overpopulation, the decimation of other species, epidemic disease, acidification of the oceans.
…
See, if we don’t start listening to our betters again, elite globalists like Stephen Hawking, we fools will destroy the world.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
To be fair, I don’t think Hawking used the work “betters”.
Scientists like Hawking cannot conceive the pseudo science swamp that is climate change.
I got news for him, We The People have a social contract called the Constitution that governs our laws, so if his ideas are so much better, then let him and his friends convince us to change it.
But elites don’t go the legal route of change because they always lose arguments because their ideas aren’t better. So they break oaths of office, violate our laws, steal our property, and invade our country with “refugees” whom they’ll have an easier time controlling.
And so it goes…
http://www.toonpool.com/user/997/files/constitution_130835.jpg
“awesome environmental challenges: climate change, food production, overpopulation, the decimation of other species, epidemic disease, acidification of the oceans.”
but no evidence that cutting fossil fuel emissions will do anything to attenuate any of these .
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2853163
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2873672
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2862438
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2845972
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2669930
I care not for tomorrow when today is F*cked up.
Malthus smiles smugly in his grave.
+1
He admits to being in a rarefied environment of people who think they are elites yet thinks this means he can tell the plebs what to do. Seriously deluded. Also the most dangerous type of nannying fussbucket around. Read C S Lewis who wrote that the robber baron isn’t always nasty as he can be staited but the nannying fussbucket is never satisfied and always interferes.
I find it intriguing that Dr Hawking forgot to consider that Hillary may have lost simply because she was a lousy candidate.
That’s it really, and maybe the idea that borders should be open to all immigrants including those with ill will who would bring on the tyranny that made them is not such a bright idea.
About eight years ago some 100+ Nobelists signed an open letter about the urgency of the global warming problem. These are Hawking’s peer group–the ones he feels tribal affiliations with. They’re probably mostly worse than he is.
Long ago someone scientific bigshot said the you couldn’t find a wacky cause the wasn’t endorsed by at least a half-dozen Nobelists.
Hawking, the Pope, 100 Nobel prize winners….
These people are just so stupid they get taken in by actual science…?
You give it away when you call on the Pope – just like we have been saying all along, you warmists demand that your case be taken on purely Religious grounds.
And the Nobel committee has pretty permanently beclowned themselves once they gave Obama a preemptive award. What would you think if they were to award Donald Trump a Nobel Peace Prize today? But that’s exactly what they did for Obama.
I notice you totally avoid answering this question, Griff… empty as usual, hey. !
” Could someone please tell me what he has contributed to society and science other than theoretical “deep thought”.”
Hey Griff,
Looks like you are alive and well, there in logical fallacy land.
And while Christians are being extirpated in the Middle East and Africa, the Pope is strangely silent on that issue.
It is beyond bizarre and well into the realm of the surreal.
What can be the explanation?
The one that explains the facts most completely would be that he is not at all what he claims to be.
i heard he was “unwell” in italy at some do, and was taken to hospital
so maybe his opinion/work/whatever wont matter soon anyway
being blunt
Hawking still breathes, still thinks. He is no student of hope, trapped as he is. Still, hope is there for him. He needs only turn his thoughts to the experience of James Lovelock and seek his own epiphany.
“And then often, finding that the Instagram nirvana is not available there, they seek it overseas, joining the ever greater numbers of economic migrants in search of a better life.”
They should build the better life at home like our forebears did. Limiting energy because of the AGW cause along with corrupt regimes in poorer countries who often get misguided support for palaces and Mercedes from the west, are the real barrier they face.
The problem with most of the elitests is that they don’t bother to learn real history. That history they do learn is very focused in their own field or science and not world history in the general sense. If Hawking had bothered to learn the real history of humankind he would know that we live in a very peaceful time with relatively little social unrest. That we are producing more food per capita than ever and the world population in general is living to a much higher standard than ever before. We are more ecologically aware and concerned than we ever have been. And that our condition as humans has been improving during his entire life time and before. He has no accurate frame of reference because he has never sought to gain one. His letter is a prime example of arrogant ignorance but he will never understand that.
I wonder how much of what is attributed to Prof. Hawking is actually produced by him and not by the group of people who are dedicated to caring for his every need. That said, theoretical physicists don’t have a great track record in social and political issues. Besides, I heard last week that Hawking decided that the real existential crisis facing the world is actually obesity. I think the only surprising thing raised in the statement attributed to Prof Hawking here is how much it reveals that he is capable of self reflection of the reality that people who live in extreme bubbles seldom actually get it right.
Hubris.
Corinthians: “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”
Why does the media praise every single line that comes out of this guy’s robot? I don’t find him very bright, in the last couple of years he’s only made some lame predictions and childish theory in the same level with Kaku etc
Hate to break it to you Dr Hawking, but, when I was considering for whom to vote, I didn’t think about you or your Cambridge ‘elites’, not even once. Also, I’m sorry to have to inform you that it isn’t all about you. Shocking revelation for you I’m sure.
Take a look at the photo in the op, then take a look at a current photo….not the same guy.
..How do we even know he said this ? …He doesn’t look very competent in the following video..
https://www.unlimited.world/unlimited/stephen-hawking-asks-us-to-consider
Poor man.
Argumentum ad Verecundiam.
“For me, the really concerning aspect of this is that now, more than at any time in our history, our species needs to work together. We face awesome environmental challenges: climate change, food production, overpopulation, the decimation of other species, epidemic disease, acidification of the oceans.”
Yes, we should work together. Since the Elites lost the election, they should be asking the winners what the winners want them to do. When they do that, we will all work together to solve our problems.
If they don’t do that, then the winners will do it on their own.
My name is Inigo Montoya…and I do not think “hoi polloi” means what you think it does.
My take on this and Stephen Hawking in particular, is that my life has not materially been affected by the fact that he wrote, and I read, ‘A Brief History of Time’. However, my life will most certainly be affected, in fact, already has, by the scientists and politicians who have lumbered my country with the most expensive and least efficient means of power generation – and all on the back of a hypothesis!
As with many of the self-styled elite, Hawking in in the metaphoric bubble, of mostly having contact with affirmations of their own elite status. Unless one has the desire to confirm one’s dearly held beliefs, it is so easy to only pay attention to that which agrees with your prejudice. After all, the good people you know agree with that world-view, and it is only those socially unacceptable people raising doubts. Why should you read something by a d e n i e r?
That sort of intellectual laziness bit the political elites with Brexit and the election of Trump, who very well could have not known anyone who voted on the other side. In both cases, the supposed elites still cannot really belive it happened.
Interviewer: Mr. Hawkins, is there anything in the universe you do not understand? What mystery do you find most intriguing, and why?
HAWKING: Women. My PA reminds me that although I have a PhD in physics, women should remain a mystery.
What a huge ego! I thought he was all about science and admired the fellow. I even read his papers in the 70’s before he was so well known. Clearly, all he can think about is himself and his importance as an “elite member of society”. This is currently true for most of the elite. This is becoming a huge unforeseen fascist problem – one we now face in the West – dominated by an elite that “knows” what is best for the little people and even the whole planet (what hubris – I can hear them say “let them eat cake” in the interests of furthering whatever planet saving goals they dream of)! These rich and powerful elitists supported by their grovelling media (who constantly bolster appeal to authority) don’t even realize that it is NOT what is best (whatever that means) that protects or ensures continued success of our civilization; what matters most is mutual respect & consideration for the aspirations (mostly food, shelter and comfort) of each and everyone of our fellow citizens!